Chapter 26
I do not own Claymore
A few days later, they arrived at the ruins of Gonahl and its castle.
The town and castle had suffered greatly during the awakened being attack that led to Clare and Raki being summoned to meet with the warrior who turned out to be Ophelia, the number 4 warrior of the time.
The subsequent battle between Ophelia and the awakened being had caused even more damage and the few remaining inhabitants fled, never to return.
Riful looked the ruins over and remarked wistfully, "Once upon a time, this was a very nice town and I like the castle, I could've lived here!"
They soon found the remains of the awakened being.
The sun bleached fragments of her bones littered the battleground, mute evidence of the violent death she met at the hands of Ophelia, the blood soaked warrior.
Even Riful muttered, "This Ophelia person...She had a few issues, didn't she?"
Teresa replied quietly, "Miria told me a few things about her and her obsession with killing awakened beings. She definitely earned her nick name. Clare told me of her encounter with Ophelia and how she lost her right arm to her. If Ilena hadn't been nearby she would've been killed, along with her boy Raki."
Teresa smiled and said, "Funny thing though, Ophelia turned her sword on Ilena and was badly wounded by her, so much so that she awakened and was later killed by Clare who had been lent Ilena's right arm and her knowledge of the quick sword technique.
"Kinda ironic if you ask me. An awakened number 4 being killed by a number 47, supposedly the weakest of all warriors."
Riful smiled and remarked candidly, "Your Clare gave me and Dauf a real run for our money several years ago, I swore I'd get even for that little embarrassment. I never expected to end up on the same team as her and grateful for her aid in saving my life that day."
They camped among the ruins of the castle that night, enjoying a cheery blaze built up by Sheila using wood from a dead tree she'd cut up.
Dinner was a wild goat that failed to dodge Sheila's thrown sword, a trick she had picked up from Yuma, who had refined the technique to achieve deadly accuracy at long ranges.
As usual, Teresa and Sheila ate sparingly while Riful cheerfully polished off the rest by herself.
Teresa spent a little time jotting down notes in a little book she carried in her shoulder bag. Closing up her book, Teresa remarked quietly,"It's almost too quiet. Since leaving Lido, we've hardly seen or felt any warriors or other creatures we need to be concerned about. It's as if they've abandoned the northlands and are concentrating their forces elsewhere."
Sheila mulled over her comments and remarked,"Do you think we should go any further north then? If something big happens while we're poking about up north, we could be too far away to make any real difference in the outcome."
Teresa said quietly, "We'll sleep on it tonight and make a decision in the morning."
The next morning all hell broke loose in the Lautrec region to the south and west of them.
Teresa and Riful suddenly stood still as if listening for something, then Sheila felt it.
Far to the south and west of them, an enormous outpouring of yoma energy suddenly exploded in all directions.
The land itself seemed to shake beneath their feet and their horses became so agitated that they broke free of their tethers, and galloped madly away in fright.
Sheila cried out, "What the hell is going on?"
Teresa looked over at Riful and she said, "They've awakened it, some idiot woke it up, that thing I'd found in the south. It's awakened!"
Riful was shaking as she said this and she remarked ruefully, "I see now why I should've left it alone, God help anyone in that forsaken land!"
She held out her hand and it was clearly shaking.
Even Teresa seemed to shudder as the relentless waves of yoma energy swept over them like an incoming tide.
Sheila suddenly wanted her mommy, she wanted to snuggle into her father's mighty arms, she wanted to cry.
After an eternity of fear, the rolling tide of yoma energy calmed and the land held its breath, what next?
Everything seemed to be asking.
"Now what?" Asked Riful, "Even the horses are smarter than we are, they ran away!"
Teresa closed her eyes as if she was listening, "I sense several warriors near there, including Clare and her squad, they're okay, thank goodness!"
Moments later, her forehead furrowed and she remarked,"They've released Alicia and Beth, they're traveling at high speed towards the Lautrec region."
"Alicia and Beth? Who're they?" asked Riful.
"They were supposed to be the ultimate weapon against the abyssals, only the abyssal feeders did their job for them. I guess the organization was keeping them in reserve, just for this sort of thing." Replied Teresa.
"Okay...What made them so special?" asked Riful.
"They're identical twins that can synchronize their youki. One can awaken in battle while the other one holds onto its reins, so to speak. The problem as I saw it, was that if the one holding the reins also gets attacked, they can both awaken."
Sheila asked, "So what good will they be in dealing with this thing that just awoke? It's gotta be huge if even Riful here is afraid of it."
She glanced at the small abyssal and asked her, "You are afraid of it, aren't you? I know I am."
Riful grinned through her fear and replied, "Absolutely shitless, but we gotta help Clare and her squad... I'll panic later."
Teresa smiled and said, "We'd best get going now, if we plan on joining in."
Riful muttered, "I hadn't wanted to do this 'cause it takes so much energy to do it."
She stripped off her clothing, stuffed it into her saddle bag and handed it to Sheila, "Hold onto this for me, please."
Moments later, the immense awakened form of Riful of the west loomed over them both.
The chestnut hued form of Riful at the top of the vast open lattice work of ribbon like strands grinned at them and said cheerfully, "Going my way?"
They hopped up alongside Riful's form and hung on as she headed south at an appalling speed that no horses could equal.
There was a second discharge of yoma energy as the awakened thing Riful had found launched a massive attack on the land of Lautrec itself.
Riful seemed to slow as she forced her way through the staggering tide of energy pouring forth.
She grunted and said grimly, "The youki is so strong, it's like running against a torrent of water."
Grimly holding on, Teresa and Sheila each placed a hand on her slim shoulders and added their yoma energy to hers.
"Thanks!" she cried as she continued battling her way south.
Raising her voice over the wind of Riful's passing, Sheila cried out, "So what's the plan when we get there?"
Teresa cried back, "I haven't a clue, we'll see when we get there. Riful's gonna be exhausted when we get there, we'll have to protect her from Alicia and Beth at the very least!"
Sheila yelled, "What about our oath not to take any warrior's lives?"
Teresa grinned and hollered back, "That doesn't mean we can't injure them a little bit. I've wanted to take them on for sometime now, woman against woman, sword against sword!"
Sheila cried, "How can I help?"
Teresa grinned, "You can stay out of the way when I finally go wild!"
Riful paused briefly in her headlong rush southward to pluck a fat steer from a herd and devour it on the fly, leaving only a pile of bloody bones to mark her passing.
The young boy watching the herd, stood open mouthed in astonishment as he saw Riful's true form come sweeping over the land, pausing briefly to eat a whole steer, then continuing on her way.
He barely noticed the two flaxen haired, silver eyed warriors hanging on for dear life.
By day's end they arrived at the scene of devastation from the thing's awakening.
The land itself was badly wounded, whole areas of the forest were now only burned and blackened stumps, dotting what had been a green and pleasant land.
Here and there, these odd looking rod like things were lying about.
The ones that lay on rocky ground were inert, devoid of life while the ones that had landed on or in an unfortunate person or large animal, were twitching and changing as they took over the bodies of the unfortunate souls they'd hit.
Riful had finished dressing when she remarked, "What the hell are those things?"
She peered at one closely, then suddenly stepped back before yelling, "Get away from them, they're awakening!"
All around them awakened beings were rising from the ground and coming towards them, some of them had vaguely humanoid features while others resembled the animals they had risen from.
Teresa and Sheila dropped their cloaks and shoulder bags and drew their swords at once. Teresa urged Riful to get between them for her safety and Riful cried in protest, "I can fight y'know, I'm not a weakling, I can kill all of these...Things."
Teresa snarled, "And you can also attract Alicia and Beth and the attention of the organization that thinks you're dead! Get between us and stop arguing!"
Teresa grinned at Sheila, "You ready for this?"
"Do I have a choice?" replied Sheila through gritted teeth.
Riful huddled low to avoid getting clipped by a massive claymore during the upcoming fight. And the awakened beings attacked.
They were huge and powerful but lacked experience, a great disadvantage when attacking Teresa or Sheila.
Teresa neatly clipped off the head of her first opponent and was horrified to see more of the rodlike things sprouting from its neck stump.
"Shit!" she cried,"Watch out, there's more of them inside!"
Her quick response was to chop her first attacker into a bloody ruin.
Sheila's reply was to turn her sword into a glittering shield as she hacked off limbs, heads and torsos at will.
The awakened beings came at them in droves and they fought them off furiously.
Sheila saw an attacker to her right and cursed the luck that had her engaged with a powerful foe at the moment.
The creature coming in on her right suddenly flew into hundreds of bloody fragments as Riful's ebon blades went on the defensive.
"Fight fair, you bastards!" She heard Riful yell as the small abyssal joined the fray, using her razor sharp hair to fight with.
As suddenly as it began, the battle stopped.
The last of the awakened beings fell to Teresa's sword and the sudden stillness seemed almost too good to be true.
Sheila stuck the point of her blood caked sword into the bloody ground and she bent over slightly while she caught her breath.
Riful's muttering , "Oh pooh! Now I have to wash my hair!"
Struck Sheila as funny and she began laughing.
Teresa grinned and said gaily, "Have you lost all sense? We've just fought a real battle and you're laughing?"
Sheila replied cheerfully as she gestured at the carnage in front of her, "I've just fought the biggest battle of my life and Riful's comment about her hair just seemed so out of context, that I just couldn't help laughing at it."
The small abyssal smiled at her and said cheerfully, "Glad I could help!"
Teresa grinned at Riful and remarked, "Thanks for your help, it was getting a little hairy there and you didn't reveal yourself."
They looked around to evaluate the bloody scene around themselves.
There were several awakened beings lying there stone dead without a mark on them, while the ones that had attacked them, had been chopped into bloody bits.
"What gives? Some of them are dead like Mayflies, not a mark on them. The ones that attacked us being dead makes sense, we killed them."
Remarked a puzzled looking Riful of the west.
"I don't get it either, but I'm not complaining. That was a pretty good workout!" Replied Teresa of the faint smile.
Sheila asked, "What next? I'm sensing some of our people nearby, do we hook up with them?"
Teresa paused and after a few moments, remarked, "I can feel Cynthia's and Yuma's auras but Clare's is very faint and it's mingled with that monster's...What has that little idiot gone and done this time?" She smiled, "Helen and Deneve are here too."
Riful said quietly, "They're going after her, Clare that is. Cynthia and Yuma are fine for now...Oh crap! The twins, they're here!"
Alicia and Beth seemingly materialized out of thin air, so abrupt was their arrival.
One moment they weren't there and the next, there they were.
The organization's most powerful warriors, their ultimate weapon against the abyssals.
Twin girls, torn from their mother's arms and raised by the organization to synchronize their yoma energies in battle against an abyssal creature.
The two of them stood silently, two beautiful young women clad in special black armor.
One of them spoke in a hollow sounding voice, a voice not used to speaking to others.
"We have been mobilized and our first targets are, the creature of the abyss, Riful of the west and the deserter warriors, Teresa of the faint smile and Sheila, a former number 47."
The one who hadn't spoken began awakening, her eyes turned golden and her limbs began extending and reshaping themselves.
Teresa did not wait for her transformation to finish, she attacked without hesitation, tearing furiously into her semi awakened opponent to keep her off balance.
Sheila launched her own attack against the twin who was not transforming, forcing her to defend herself against a flurry of cuts and thrusts in an effort to break their youki synchronization link.
Seeing an opening, Sheila slammed her left fist into her opponent's jaw, staggering her with the force of her blow.
The black armor clad twin stepped back and shook her head to clear it, no one had ever struck her like that before, not even in training and it had momentarily rattled her.
Sheila bored into her opponent with a relentless attack of slashing, hacking, cutting and thrusting, she strove to keep her attacks at random and unpredictable, she knew she was hopelessly out classed by the twin she was fighting, and it lent a desperation to her frenzied attack.
The twin might defeat her in a prolonged fight, but she would know she had found a worthy opponent in Sheila.
Her only strategy was to confuse and obstruct her counterattacks by any means necessary, even kicking dirt into the twin's face was allowed as far as Sheila was concerned.
The twins fought silently and without expression, their beautiful faces unmarred by any signs of emotion, good, bad or indifferent.
Sheila knew her end was near when her sword arm got cut off and sent flying.
Steeling herself for the death stroke sure to follow, she gritted her teeth.
It had been a good life, she had won good friends and the love of a young man, she silently apologized to him for leaving so soon...
Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, Riful struck in all her fury, her razorlike strands overwhelmed the twin facing her before she could awaken and with Teresa keeping her sister off balance and fighting for her own life, she quickly fell before Riful's full powered onslaught.
Soon after, her twin sister fell before Teresa's sheer power and vast combat experience.
The two of them lay there, stunned at their defeat.
Their training had never prepared them to face such powerful adversaries who didn't play by the rules.
Sheila quickly retrieved her arm and began reattaching it while Teresa and Riful watched over the fallen twins.
Cynthia and Yuma arrived and began helping Sheila with her arm.
One of the twins finally spoke in a hollow sounding voice, "Why haven't you finished us ? We would have finished you, Teresa of the faint smile and Riful of the west."
Riful said drily, "The old me would've chopped you two into bloody heaps for attacking me. The new me won't take your lives, but I will injure you to keep you from attacking me or my friends.
"However, that oath only goes so far, attack any of us again and I could revert to the old me quite easily... Don't push your luck!"
Teresa squinted at something she saw on a nearby hillside and commented, "Welp, our secret's out, the organization knows you're still alive Riful."
She pointed, "See the watchers over there? I'll bet Lord Dae is among them, wondering how he can get his hands on some of that thingy over there."
As one, they all glanced over at the gigantic creature towering over the broken land of Lautrec.
It had extruded a halo of sorts, a halo made up of the rodlike things it had launched prior to their arrival.
Teresa smiled and said, "Helen and Deneve are with Clare...She's okay."
A shock wave of yoma energy burst forth from the giant thing and a moment later, it launched another attack upon the landscape.
Thousands of the rodlike projectiles radiated out from its halo in all directions.
The warriors braced themselves and began frantically dodging and fending off the incoming wave of projectiles with their swords.
To their dismay, a troop of the abyssal feeders, heedless of the danger attacked Riful and began devouring portions of her anatomy.
In the confusion, Alicia and Beth renewed their attack on Riful with Alicia awakening while Beth controlled her from a distance.
Cynthia and Yuma fought with the abyssal feeders while Teresa and Sheila crossed swords with Alicia's awakened form and barely dodged the incoming projectiles.
Alicia to their surprise, destroyed most of the abyssal feeders in one blow while pressing her attack on Riful's weakened form.
She was homing in for the kill when suddenly, she faltered and began reverting to her human form.
Teresa held off her counterattack and watched in puzzlement as the black armored Alicia struggled to control herself.
Cynthia cried out, "Run! Get outta here!"
Sheila snatched up the badly wounded Riful and ran for her life, her long legs pumping like mad.
Moments later, Teresa and the others had caught up to her.
"Why are we running?" Sheila heard Yuma ask Cynthia, she replied breathlessly, "One of those things hit Beth and she's awakening, God only knows what'll happen next!"
They pelted along in a long legged stride only they could achieve and as they ran they felt an explosion of yoma energy as Beth awakened uncontrollably.
Striving to put as much distance between themselves and Beth, Teresa and Sheila barely noticed when Cynthia and Yuma had fallen back and were no longer in sight.
Stopping to catch their breaths, Teresa looked back and muttered, "I don't see them, can you?"
Sheila gently laid down her small burden and straightened to her full height.
Shading her silver eyes, she peered into the distance and finally said, "No, I don't...I do sense them though. It's like they're trying to hide from something."
Teresa stared off into the distance as well and remarked," Yes, I'm getting that sensation too."
A small voice groaned and Riful murmured, "Are they gone...Those things?"
Sheila quickly knelt alongside the wounded abyssal, Riful was missing an arm and a leg while her head was missing an ear and a part of her skull.
Riful smiled at them through her pain and croaked, "Who knew I would be so popular that everyone would want a piece of me?"
Sheila smiled at her small friend and synchronized her youki with hers while Teresa stood guard over them, her massive sword at the ready.
Some distance away, a gigantic battle was being fought.
Clare, Helen and Deneve were fighting against daunting odds, with newly formed awakened beings surrounding them and closing in for the kill.
Cynthia had been badly wounded during Alicia's awakening and Yuma was valiantly trying to heal her despite her grave injuries.
A new energy signature suddenly appeared, one that lay buried deeply within Teresa's psyche.
A memory of a long ago day rose up in her mind.
She was standing over a defeated warrior, a warrior who was on the verge of awakening. Teresa hesitated, suddenly loath to take a fellow warrior's life.
There was a flash of a sword blade and her hands, still clutching her claymore went flying. An instant later, she felt a sting across her throat and her head went flying.
As her consciousness faded to black, she felt her head hit the ground and her last sight was the image of her headless body toppling to the ground.
Blackness enveloped her until that day she woke up lying naked on a stone slab, deep within the organization's headquarters.
Teresa shuddered as she recognized that new yoma energy signature.
Priscilla had arrived at the scene, drawn to the fray by the gigantic releases of yoma energy.
"She's here!" muttered Teresa and a moment later, Riful whispered, "That girl is here...What will happen now?"
Sheila asked, "What is this yoma energy I feel...Is this who you're both referring to?"
Teresa and Riful exchanged meaningful glances, then Teresa spoke, "What you are feeling is the yoma energy of a young girl named Priscilla.
She is the one who decapitated me nearly twenty years ago now.
She was part of an execution team sent to punish me for the crime of killing humans.
"The fact that they themselves were killers and rapists meant little to the organization.
I had killed the lot of them, an unforgivable crime that called for my death as punishment.
I had defeated Priscilla and she began to awaken in her anguish.
"I hesitated to finish her and she got very lucky and killed me just before she awakened and killed the rest of the squad."
Teresa sighed and continued,
"I learned from Clare that she had insisted on using my flesh to become a warrior, so she could get revenge on Priscilla. Apparently, my corpse was retrieved at the urging of Rubel and dunked into a tank of nutrients."
"Eventually they noticed that my corpse had somehow healed itself, the flesh they had removed grew back and that led Lord Dae to try reviving me.
And here I am telling you all about it!"
Riful looked thoughtful and commented, "I hadn't heard this before. So you, Clare and Priscilla all have this tragic connection. This explains why Clare became so agitated when Priscilla's name came up during our first encounter. Do you think she'll go after Priscilla, even though you're alive again?"
"I have no idea." Replied Teresa, "What concerns me, is that Priscilla may go after Clare, thinking she's going after me again."
Teresa gripped her massive sword, smiled grimly and said,"Shall we give her the real thing then?"
"You're certain about this?" Asked a visibly concerned Sheila who fought to suppress her urge to shudder at the sheer amount of youki energy she was feeling.
"She could kill you again."
"What other choice do I have? Priscilla might go after Clare, what kind of a mother would I be if I just stood by and let it happen?" replied Teresa, "Besides, I've been dead before, it's nothing to fear really."
Riful smiled at Teresa's comment and remarked coyly,"I had a feeling you felt rather matronly towards that headstrong, young idiot. And you just now admitted it."
"What can I say? Clare has my flesh and blood embedded inside her, in a way I gave birth to her...Now, enough talking, let's go rescue that headstrong, young idiot!"
And with her faint smile in place, Teresa took up her shoulder bag and cloak and began a series of great leaps that carried her towards the battleground that lay ahead.
By the time they got there, Priscilla had already shattered the destroyer's initial form and she and Clare were now caught up in the swirling mass that had been the destroyer.
The three of them stared at the amorphous thing still seething from the gigantic struggle that had spawned it.
Teresa turned to Helen and Deneve and asked,"What the hell is that thing?"
Deneve replied tersely, "I think that is the combined form of the destroyer, the girl who attacked it and Clare, who seemed to know who the girl was and went after her with a vengeance."
Deneve looked at Teresa and asked, "Do you have any idea why Clare would've gone after her the way she did? Obviously she knew something we didn't, something she withheld from us all this time."
Teresa looked sadly at Deneve and replied,"That girl, as you put it, is the former number two who awakened and killed me about twenty years ago. Clare saw the whole thing and it led to her carrying my head to the organization and asking to have my flesh and blood implanted in her body.
"The girl is named Priscilla and is likely the strongest awakened being ever."
Teresa muttered,
"How she escaped the notice of the organization is beyond me. Most likely Isley kept her in hiding to protect her, perhaps he loved her? I don't know and he can't answer, now that he is dead."
They were joined by Yuma and a looking much the worse for wear, Cynthia who leaned against Yuma for support.
Cynthia's badly damaged outfit clearly had a tale to be told, when time allowed.
The seven of them watched quietly while the seething mass slowly shrank in size and solidified in form.
Helen yawned and stretched, then muttered, "So, what will we do with it? We can't leave it here, where the organization can fool around with it some more."
Riful murmured, "If I'd had any real idea of what would happen, I would've dropped it into a deep lake somewhere."
Everyone looked at Teresa who quipped, "Don't get into any unnecessary fights, avoid other warriors or awakeneds and the organization, if at all possible."
She smiled and said ruefully, "Well ladies, we certainly disobeyed those instructions now, didn't we?"
She gestured at the writhing mass, now greatly reduced in size and commented, "Until that thing stabilizes, there isn't much we can do right now except let our wounded regain their strength."
Yuma and Sheila then teamed up and helped both Cynthia and Riful recover from their injuries.
They knew Riful was feeling better when she muttered, "And I looked so cute in that outfit before those...Things, came along to spoil my day."
She smiled gratefully when Sheila handed her, her small back pack with her extra clothing inside it.
Somehow, the towering warrior had hung onto hers and Riful's things, despite all the confusion surrounding them.
Cynthia had to make do with a pair of trousers filched from Sheila's own back pack, a jerry rigged belt held the loose trousers up on Cynthia's svelte hips.
For three days, they sat and watched over the slowly shrinking and stabilizing mass while the wounded land around them began to heal.
Riful herself remarked to Teresa, "The land always suffers so when awakened beings fight, I tried to avoid fighting because I didn't want to destroy the land. Unfortunately, the fight came to me."
Teresa mulled over her comment as well as what Deneve and Helen had related to her about their experiences in the heart of the maelstrom, of how Clare had recognized the girl and in her efforts to awaken and go after her, she failed repeatedly, even while all hell was breaking loose around them.
Deneve's account of the girl finally assuming her awakened form and attacking the monstrous destroyer after having turned her back on the badly wounded Clare troubled Teresa.
Was her 'daughter' still alive in that seething mass sitting before her?
Cynthia had assured her that she could still sense Clare's youki energy deep inside the still writhing form and Teresa's own senses were in agreement, Clare had to be still alive.
Clare's final words to Deneve haunted her, "I have to stop its rampage, that's the last mission given to me!"
Moments later, the mass had swallowed her whole.